


I won't apologize (For the truths that are and could have been)

by ShadowSelene (Shadowdianne)



Category: Once Upon a Time (TV)
Genre: F/F
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-10-27
Updated: 2017-10-27
Packaged: 2019-01-25 05:06:48
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,413
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/12523648
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Shadowdianne/pseuds/ShadowSelene
Summary: Prompt: Regina sees Emma flirting with another woman and verbalizes her jealousy (in Regina fashion) later.. Emma appears clueless at first. The rest is up to you :)---------------"..." as Regina felt like stumbling, alcohol on her veins, burning them as she moved her head close enough to feel the gasp that came out of Emma’s mouth as the other brunette exited from the bathroom.And Regina had seconds, moments, before everything came tumbling down and she would, once again, feel too old and too wise and too tired and on the verge of losing too much to act up on the feelings that had called for Emma the second the blonde had stared down at her own parents only to say that she wasn’t going to let Regina get killed.“You know why, don’t pretend you don’t Emma.”





	I won't apologize (For the truths that are and could have been)

**Author's Note:**

  * For [Sphix](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Sphix/gifts).



> This one was asked by Sphix (Or swanqueen-in-gotham as she goes by on Tumblr.) She is another fic writer and I truly rec her stories. She has an amazing eye for action and quick, wit-filled dialoge that she makes it sound easy even when it's not. Go check her out and leave her a comment!

 

The lights at Aesop had begun to dwindle by the time a brunette woman had approached Emma and Regina, all sultry smiles and compliments to the savior who blushed and smiled at her in a way that made Regina grips her own drink a little tighter as Emma shot at her an apologetic look before standing and moving closer to the newcomer, her back towards the former queen.

Regina’s tongue was pressed tightly against her mouth’s sky as she stared at Emma interact with the stranger -slightly dubiously, her movements jerky at some points, her voice halting as if doubting how much she could say- and the other woman answering back in what seemed to be an obvious interest on her part. Something Regina had known very well that was a possibility the second she had knocked her way inside Emma’s office with a smile on place and a dozen of silent questions the blonde had answered back with a smile of her own, the kind that hurt a little on the edges, as if Regina couldn’t truly look at it without wanting to pry further on things she shouldn’t.

Like the divorce, like Hook’s screams and insults that had kept Emma from sleeping thorough the next weeks, tears rimming her eyes red as she kept tight-lipped of why she had, at the end, asked Hook to go, to disappear and never come back.

The drinks at the pub hadn’t been her idea but Ruby’s, the werewolf implying that Emma could be more open to talk if neither Regina or herself could hide behind their usual excuses of Henry or each other’s job and so, as much as it pained her to ask, Regina had asked and gotten her answer in the form of a slowly blinking blonde who, eventually, had muttered a soft yes that had sounded too much like a question.

She had never intended to get the blonde a date o and at some other point of their relationship, back when she had been The Mayor with capital letters, no one would have dared to come close to them as they drank, silent and yet comfortable on each other’s presence. However, Regina wasn’t the same anymore and so she was subjected to see Emma smile and ease up in front of the other brunette who kept on biting her bottom lip, a look of hunger darkening eyes so blue Regina could feel their icy stare the moment Emma went to Aesop for a refill.

_“You are so focused on being a proper friend for her that you’ve lost something on how you are with each other.”_

Ruby’s words had hurt even if Regina had tried to hide it and as she stared at the golden-colored wooden counter she focused in the warm atmosphere, zeroing on the thick bottom of the glass in where reflections of the lights above her head kept on winking at her. It was, she thought while trying not to think too much on Emma’s slow words about how she had realized that she didn’t love Hook, that she had made a mistake by thinking she was tied to him. They burnt as well, she thought while running her tongue through her teeth, sucking on her breath and trying not to look too intently to Emma’s new “friend”.

_“A proper friend”_

Squaring her shoulders, Regina turned towards Emma and rose a brow the second she saw the blonde mutter something quickly into the other woman’s ear before the newcomer turned and left for the bathroom, a quick smirk playing on her lips. Emma’s answer to Regina’s stare, however, was less vivacious and much more confused. Which, Regina discovered, she hated it.

“Next time you need fresh air I will be sure to let her know that you are horrible with being punctual dear.”

Those weren’t the words she had wanted to say but they came from her mouth nonetheless, a nondescriptive whisper that reached Emma’s drink as she moved closer to Regina once again, her scent reaching the former queen and making her want to close her eyes at the slight spark that was Emma’s magic permeating the crisp and clean smell the blonde always left behind. The blonde left her drink on the counter and furrowed her brow, a look of loss marring her features before she tilted her head, eyes like jewels staring at Regina as the brunette kept her chin high, her traitorous fingers tightly hidden away as she pretended to have grown bored of playing with her glass.

“I thought you had brought me here to…”

“To talk.” Regina replied, cutting, far too cutting. “I thought you needed something… different.”

“Then why do you care?”

Regina wasn’t stupid and neither was Emma, there was an edge there, hidden beneath the clueless look Emma still sported, a chance, an invitation to walk into the abyss the suddenly felt like gaping in front of Regina in the same way she had felt the moment Emma had looked at her and told her in a far too nervous smile, in a far too fidgeting posture, that she was going to get married.

_“Why do you care?”_

And Regina realized she was tired, tired of being afraid, of running away and stopping herself, of looking and wanting and thinking repeatedly that the trust, the love, the half-said sentences and the swallowed ones didn’t mean as much as Emma’s unwavering trust and care and so she stared at the center of those green eyes who she had seen dwindle and die every time Hook said another demeaning slur and stood. She was wearing high heels and so Emma didn’t tower over her but it almost felt like she did as Regina felt like stumbling, alcohol on her veins, burning them as she moved her head close enough to feel the gasp that came out of Emma’s mouth as the other brunette exited from the bathroom.

And Regina had seconds, moments, before everything came tumbling down and she would, once again, feel too old and too wise and too tired and on the verge of losing too much to act up on the feelings that had called for Emma the second the blonde had stared down at her own parents only to say that she wasn’t going to let Regina get killed.

“You know why, don’t pretend you don’t Emma.”

Emma blinked and Regina closed her hands into fists, feeling her magic screaming back at her, electricity sparkling, leaving behind the unmistakable smell of ozone around her. They were close, she thought, far too close and she was far too tired of playing, of seeing and sensing the stares, the words, the could-have-beens and so she deflated, turning abruptly and picking blindly her blazer on her haste.

“I’ll be going, goodnight.”

The door behind her echoed like one she had closed once as well, when she had been nothing else than the Evil Queen and Emma had invited her to a party no one thought she deserved to be there but the blonde. She could remember Emma stumbling out of the dinner, smiling at her in that grey jumper Regina had found herself wondering where it had gone. That had been the first time in a very long time Regina had apologized to someone who wasn’t Henry, her steps carrying her closer to the blonde in a way she had found odd at first but which had quickly turned out to be normal on their relationship; sometimes she would run and Emma would chase after her, relentless. Some other times it would be Emma who run, looking at Regina from afar in a way that made the brunette’s heart jump and wonder…

“What if… I want to go with you?”

Emma looked beautiful under the city lampposts’ lights, a slight flush on her cheeks.

“She wasn’t happy.” She added, pointing with her thumb to the interior of Aesop. “But, to be honest… she wasn’t my type.”

Regina scoffed and pretended not to as Emma approached her, offering her hand and withdrawing it on the same second, a shadow covering her eyes, doubt tinting her words, her movements in the way she bit down her bottom lip.

“So… can I go with you?”

And Regina… Regina nodded, sliding her hand into Emma’s in a way that felt too raw and yet perfect and she settled into the blonde’s pace.

_“I love you.”_

_“I know you do.”_

_“Hey!”_

_“But it’s true.”_


End file.
